Growing up up on 103rd Street in East Harlem, LAVA  was influenced by older brother–graff artist Kool Breeze. LAVA started out tagging his gang name StraightMan. It referred to his height, which had kicked in early in life.  He realized that StraightMan is a long-ass tag when you want to write and run. That’s why LAVA I & II was born. Yes, he did get the name from the soap. He made sure to write I & II to increase his chance of being the only LAVA in NYC graff culture.  It worked pretty well.

••••

Family-man LAVA had kids with one wife, who stuck with him for four decades.  His deep sense of loyalty extended to the Black Spades as well.  Not to get into gang stuff, but LAVA never backed away from his affiliation. He wore the colors until he passed in 2020.  Miss you man. —Bama